Lot 10
GERALD LESLIE BROCKHURST R.A. (BRITISH 1890-1978) §
DORETTE - 1932
£2,268
Auction: 18 October 2023 at 11:00 BST
Description
Etching, signed and dated in plate, signed in pencil to margin
Dimensions
Provenance
Provenance: Private British collection
Footnote
Gerald Brockhurst’s primary muses were Anäis Folin and Kathleen Woodward. Both sat for numerous portraits and figure studies with the aid of lavish period-style costumes and props, often in whimsical guises inspired by the heroines of Shakespeare or Greek mythology.
Anäis, Brockhurst’s first wife, was the defining muse of his early portraiture. For most of the First World War the couple lived in Ireland where they befriended the artist Augustus John. During this period Brockhurst predominantly produced paintings, and was encouraged by John to adopt a freer paint-application technique.
Brockhurst had experimented with printmaking in the 1910s, but it was not until the early ‘20s that he committed to etching in earnest. In a market increasingly oversaturated with etchings of landscapes and urban views, Brockhurst concentrated on portraiture, many of which were transpositions of compositions he had painted in the late 1910s and early ‘20s. He soon achieved distinction for his rendering of skin, hair and textiles with astonishing naturalism. Each composition is imbued with a refined stillness, with flesh that appears almost to glow and to possess conceivable weight and mass.
From 1928 Brockhurst joined the Royal Academy Schools as a visiting teacher and met the sixteen year old Kathleen Woodward, who went by ‘Dorette’. She became his new muse, and the pair later married.
In 1939 the couple moved to America where Brockhurst enjoyed great acclaim. Commissions from prominent figures including Marlene Dietrich, The Duchess of Windsor and J. Paul Getty helped crystallise his legacy as one of the most important British portrait artists of the early twentieth century. A retrospective of Brockhurst’s portraiture was held at the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Graves Gallery in Sheffield and the City Art Gallery in his native Birmingham.
